Digital signal processing in optical systems used for ranging applications

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatuses for reducing the response time along with increasing the probability of ranging of optical rangefinders that digitize the signal waveforms obtained from the pulse echoes returned from various types of objects to be ranged, the pulse echoes being too weak to allow successful ranging from a single waveform or the objects being possibly in motion during the capture of the pulse echoes. In a first embodiment of the invention, the response time at close range of a digital optical rangefinder is reduced by using a signal averaging process wherein the number of data to be averaged varies with the distance according to a predetermined function. In a second embodiment of the invention, the probability of ranging objects in motion along the line of sight of a digital optical rangefinder is increased and the object velocity measured by performing a range shift of each acquired signal waveform prior to averaging. In a third embodiment of the invention, the signal waveforms acquired in the line of sight of a digital optical rangefinder are scanned over a predetermined zone and range shifted and averaged to allow for early detection and ranging of objects that enter in the zone.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention generally relates to methods for improving theperformance of an optical rangefinder used for measuring the distance toa moving object, and more particularly to methods for increasing thesignal to noise ratio along with obtaining shorter response times for atime-of-flight rangefinder through digital processing of the receivedsignal waveforms.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Lidar Systems

Radiation with wavelength in the optical region of the electromagneticspectrum i.e., from the ultraviolet up to the infrared, can interactwith matter in various states through mechanisms such as opticalabsorption and scattering. Early after the advent of the first lasers,it was recognized that these novel sources of coherent optical radiationcould be used for sensing solid objects, particulate matter, aerosols,and even molecular species located at long distances. Remote sensingapplications emerged owing to some distinctive features of lasersources. For example, several types of laser sources emit optical pulsescarrying high energy that can propagate in the atmosphere in the form ofa slowly-diverging optical beam. Similarly to the radio and microwaveradiation sources used in common radar instruments, systems that employlight sources for remote sensing applications are generally known aslidar systems, or simply lidars, which is the acronym for LightDetection And Ranging.

Lidars for Rangefinding Applications

Nowadays, the most frequently encountered application domain of lidarsis undoubtedly the non-contact measurement of the distance thatseparates a remote object from the lidar. This application domain isusually denoted as optical ranging, and it encompasses the measurementof the distances of objects of various types. Hence, the object to beranged can be for example a solid object like a moving vehicle intraffic control and collision-avoidance applications, a cloud of aerosoldroplets in the monitoring of pesticide aerial drifts in agriculturalfields, and liquids in non-contact level sensing of the content oftanks. Lidar devices intended for ranging of solid objects are commonlyreferred to as optical rangefinders. Most optical rangefinders designedfor measuring distances of a few meters up to several kilometers rely onthe pulsed time-of-flight (TOF) principle, also known in the art as thepulse echo principle or pulse transit time principle. This principlerequires that the light source integrated in the rangefinder emitsoptical pulses of short duration, typically in the ns (nanosecond, 1ns=10⁻⁹ s) range, either in single-shot regime or in the form of a pulsetrain of limited duration. The TOF principle consists essentially inmeasuring the time it takes an optical pulse to travel from therangefinder up to a remote object, and then to return back to theinstrument. The range R of the targeted object is deduced from themeasured full round-trip time T of the optical pulse using the simplerelation:

$\begin{matrix}{{R = \frac{cT}{2n}},} & (1)\end{matrix}$

where c is the speed of light in vacuum, which scales to roughly 3×10⁸m/s, and n denotes the refractive index of the medium in which theoptical pulse propagates. Methods for optical ranging are not limited tothe pulsed TOF technique. Methods such as optical triangulation,interferometric phase-shift range finding, and frequency-modulatedcontinuous-wave (FMCW) range finding, just to name of few, exist aswell. The review paper of M.-C. Amann et al. (“Laser ranging: a criticalreview of usual techniques for distance measurement”, OpticalEngineering vol. 40, pp. 10-19, January 2001) discusses these techniquesin greater details.

The round-trip time T of any given optical pulse emitted from a majorityof TOF rangefinders is measured by initiating an electronic counter or avoltage ramp simultaneously with the launch of the pulse. The counter orvoltage ramp is then stopped as soon as the receiver module of therangefinder detects the pulse echo. A targeted object is successfullyranged when the amplitude of the pulse echo exceeds a preset thresholdvoltage, this comparison being performed by an analog voltagecomparator. The threshold voltage must be set high enough to avoid falsealarms triggered by noise peaks that corrupt the voltage signal at theoutput of the receiver module. On the other hand, the threshold voltagemust be set low enough to provide sufficient sensitivity to allowranging on objects that return weak pulse echoes. Upon successfuldetection of a pulse echo, the range to the object is determined fromthe output of the range counter or voltage ramp, using Eq. (1) shownabove. The measurement data is finally displayed to the user.

The above description holds for instruments in which the received pulsesignals are processed by fully analog electronics. This design choicecontributed heavily to the development of robust, compact, and low-costoptical rangefinders with low power consumption, paving the way for highvolume manufacturing of optical rangefinder products for the consumermarket. These products are intended for ranging applications of varioustypes, but for which the ranges to be measured do not exceed about 1000m in good atmospheric visibility conditions and with cooperative (highlyreflecting) objects to be ranged. Unfortunately, the relative simplicityof the analog electronic designs is obtained at the expense ofperformance and flexibility. For instance, it can happen that theoptical pulses radiated by a rangefinder hit more than a single objectalong their travel to the object to be ranged. In this case the returnsignal waveform presents a succession of more or less separated peakshaving different amplitudes. This situation can be tackled with varyingsuccess by rangefinder devices that offer both first-reply andlast-reply modes, in which the range counter is stopped by triggeringonly on the first pulse and on the last pulse detected in the signalwaveform, respectively. For example, the last-reply mode can be selectedto prevent from ranging on nearby aerosols (i.e., fog, smoke clouds)present along the optical beam path. In turn, the first-reply mode canhelp when significant background clutter is present. Despite theseuseful add-ons, most analog rangefinders limit their output to the rawdisplay of the measured range value, without any further informationabout the specific temporal shape of the received signal waveforms. As aconsequence, even an experienced user cannot always be aware of falserange measurement events caused by the presence of clutter along theline of sight of the device, by the pointing jitter of the device, or byadverse weather conditions that cause inadvertent ranging events atranges closer than the aimed object.

Optical Rangefinders with Digital Processing of the Received SignalWaveforms

The implementation of digital signal processing in optical rangefinderinstruments is very appealing for getting around several limitations ofdedicated analog processing. Hence, by routing the filtered analogsignal waveforms from the optical receiver module to a fastanalog-to-digital (A/D) converter, the resulting digitized signalwaveforms can then be processed by a microprocessor. An endless varietyof software codes can be run, thus enabling new ways for improving someperformance figures of the rangefinder or for implementing additionalfeatures in a cost-effective manner. The primary limitations of digitalsignal processing now come from the desired maximum response time of theinstrument.

Even limited forms of digital signal processing can impact on criticalperformance metrics of optical rangefinders, such as the maximum rangethat can be successfully measured in specific environmental conditions.One of the simplest operations for extending the maximum rangespecification is the averaging (or accumulation) of a set of digitizedsignal waveforms obtained from the signal echoes associated with anemitted optical pulse train. Signal averaging is well known in the artas an efficient way to increase the signal to noise ratio (SNR) ofwaveforms corrupted with white noise. The SNR is defined here as theratio of the peak signal amplitude to the root-mean-square (rms) noiseamplitude of a waveform. It can be shown that when both conditions ofcorrelated useful signals and uncorrelated noise are fulfilled, the netSNR resulting from the average of N independent waveforms is given bySNR_(NET)=(N)^(1/2)SNR_(W), where SNR_(W) stands for the signal to noiseratio of a single waveform. For instance, a tenfold SNR improvementresults when averaging a set of 100 independent signal waveformsacquired in similar (stationary) conditions. Signal averaging thenappears as an attractive way to enable ranging of objects located atfarther distances without the need for upgrading the rangefinderhardware. This is due to the fact that the SNR performance figure ofcommon optical rangefinders and of other types of lidar systemsdecreases steadily with the range to the object. As a consequence, theminimum SNR value that allows reliable detection of typical objectsignatures embedded in a noisy signal waveform dictates the maximumrange that can be measured.

The light sources integrated in the optical emitter module of mostrangefinders designed for short to medium ranging can emit optical pulsetrains at pulse repetition frequencies (PRF) exceeding several tens ofkHz. These high PRFs then enable averaging of large sets of independentreturn signal waveforms while providing instrument response times thatare suitable for many applications. In addition, using signal averagingas a way to enhance the SNR performance figure may help in keeping theoptical irradiance level of each pulse lower than the applicable MaximumPermissible Exposure (MPE) as prescribed in laser safety standards suchas the ANSI Z136.1-2000 American National Standard for Safe Use ofLasers. As a result, farther objects can be successfully ranged whilemaintaining the optical pulse irradiance well below the exposure levelat which ocular damages due to direct intrabeam viewing could takeplace. Rangefinders and laser radar instruments that employ averaging ofthe digitized return signal waveforms are taught for example in EuropeanPatent No. EP0312524 to Gaechter, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,179,286 to Akasu,5,357,331 to Flockencier, 5,760,887 to Fink et al., 6,259,515 to Benz etal., and 6,836,317 to Perger.

Limitations of the Standard Signal Averaging Technique

In principle, one could obtain output waveforms having the desired SNRby averaging a sufficient number of raw signal waveforms. The time delayrequired to collect the whole waveform set, denoted as the integrationtime, depends primarily on the PRF of the optical emitter module of therangefinder. In turn, the integration time plays a major role in settingthe minimum response time of the rangefinder instrument. Fast responsetimes are critical in some optical ranging applications. A good exampleconsists of collision avoidance systems embarked in vehicles, for whichthe delay in triggering alarms must be minimized when objects arelocated at close distances in front of a moving vehicle. Unfortunately,the response time is generally established from a fixed value of theintegration time, this latter value being generally determined by theneed to successfully range objects located at the maximum distance to becovered by the instrument. As a result, the implementation of a standardsignal averaging process may lead to an instrument response that wouldbe too slow for some applications where nearby objects must be detectedand ranged very quickly. In fact, the difficulty originates from theintegration of a fixed number of raw signal waveforms, which does notreally take advantage of the important variations of the SNR response oftypical optical rangefinders as a function of the range to the object.

The standard averaging technique performs at its best when carried outon waveforms corrupted with uncorrelated random noise and in which thecharacteristics of the object signature to be detected do not changeappreciably over the whole set of collected waveforms. Unfortunately,these requirements can be difficult to satisfy in practical situations,so that the SNR improvement resulting from standard signal averaging maybe disappointing. A typical example occurs when one attempts to range anobject that moves along the line of sight of the rangefinder during theintegration time. In this case, the signal averaging process would failto discriminate the object signature against noise since the position ofthe corresponding peak signal amplitude will move from waveform towaveform. Consequently, the averaged output waveform would comprise acomposite signal formed by the spreading of the intrinsic objectsignature over the range interval covered by the object during itsmotion. The averaging operation would not succeed in increasing theamplitude of the object signature, so that the output signal would notreally discriminate against the noise background.

Finally, in some applications the number of signal waveforms to beaveraged needs to be chosen with care when an object having time-varyingcharacteristics must be ranged by integrating the waveforms during anon-negligible period of time. Hence, it is well known in the art thataveraging a large number N of waveforms will wash out the signalfeatures that change significantly over time scales shorter than theintegration time. This situation occurs for instance when using lidarsystems for the detection and ranging of remote aerosols and molecules,whose optical return characteristics are unstable and evolve rapidlywith time. See for example J. P. Thayer et al., “Rayleigh lidar systemfor middle atmosphere research in the arctic”, Optical Engineering vol.36, pp. 2045-2061, (1997). Excessive averaging of the return signalwaveforms may also hide critical information about an object that isranged under degraded visibility conditions, such as to infer whetherthe object is a living body (with detectable movement) or a lifelessobject (without any detectable movement).

Digital Correlation of the Signal Waveforms

In addition to the averaging of the received signal waveforms asdiscussed in the preceding paragraphs, other digital processingtechniques can be implemented in rangefinder instruments as well. Forexample, a technique well known in the art for increasing the rangeresolution of optical rangefinders consists in numerically correlatingthe received signal waveforms with a reference profile or function. Thisreference function can be for example a digitized version of theinstrument response to a solid object, this response being permanentlystored in memory. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,805,468 to Blöhbaum, 6,100,539 toBlümcke et al, 6,259,515 to Benz et al., 6,516,286 to Aebischer et al,and 6,753,950 to Morcom disclose laser rangefinding apparatuses ormethods that implement digital correlation of the received signalwaveforms. The range associated to the peak signal return within thereceived waveforms can be inferred from the position at which the resultof the correlation process gets its peak value. As mentioned in U.S.Pat. No. 6,259,515 to Benz et al, this method for signal processinggives enhanced range resolution when the reference correlation functionis sampled at a frequency higher than that used for digitizing thesignal waveforms. In many cases, the digital correlation is performed ona processed waveform obtained by previously averaging a set of rawsignal waveforms, so that the difficulties discussed earlier about thestandard signal averaging process still remain.

In view of the prior art recited above and of the various problems,challenges, and limitations reported when implementing, in opticalrangefinders, standard methods for processing the digitized returnsignal waveforms, there is a need for developing new methods that canbetter account for the characteristics of targeted objects that returnvery weak pulse echoes while their relative position and/or opticalreflection properties may vary during the integration time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore a first object of the present invention to provide amethod for implementing more efficient digital processing of opticalrangefinder data wherein the level of averaging of a set of receivedsignal waveforms accounts for the range-dependent signal-to-noisecharacteristics of the instrument while providing response times suitedto the range to the targeted object.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method fordigital processing of optical rangefinder data in which theSNR-enhancing capability of standard signal averaging techniques ismaintained when ranging objects that move over significant distancesduring the acquisition of the return signal waveforms.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method fordigital processing of optical rangefinder data in which theSNR-enhancing capability of signal averaging techniques is maintainedwhile allowing the measurement of the relative velocity of a targetedobject along the line of sight of the rangefinder.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method fordigital processing of the data generated by an optical rangefinder whoseline of sight is scanned over a predetermined angular interval, and inwhich the SNR-enhancing capability of standard signal averagingtechniques is maintained when ranging objects that move along anydirection when located in the region covered by the scanned lines ofsight.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method fordigital processing of the data generated by an optical rangefinder whoseline of sight is scanned over a predetermined angular interval, andwhich enables the measurement in real time of the relative velocity andtravel direction of an object in motion as well as the prediction of itstrajectory.

These and other objects of the invention will be more fully appreciatedby reference to the following summary of the invention and thedescription of the preferred embodiments that follows, bearing in mindthat various aspects of the present invention respond to one or more ofthe above objects and that not all aspects necessarily meet all objectssimultaneously.

According to various aspects of the present invention, digitalprocessing methods are disclosed for reducing the response time alongwith increasing the probability of ranging (closely related to thesignal to noise ratio) of optical rangefinders that digitize the signalwaveforms obtained from the pulse echoes returned from various types ofobjects to be ranged. The methods aim at improving the performance ofoptical digital rangefinders, particularly for situations where thepulse echoes returned from an object are too weak to allow successfulranging from a single waveform. Likewise, the methods alleviate animportant limitation of standard signal averaging techniques by allowingthe ranging of objects in motion during the capture of the pulse echoes.In one aspect of the invention, the response time at close ranges of adigital optical rangefinder is reduced by using a signal averagingprocess in which the quantity of sampled data to be averaged varies withthe distance according to a predetermined function. The functiongenerally increases monotonically with the range in order to balance thewell-known reduction of the signal amplitude returned by an object as itgets farther from the rangefinder.

In another aspect of the invention, the probability of ranging objectsthat move along the line of sight of a digital optical rangefinder isincreased by performing range shift operations on a set of signalwaveforms prior to averaging them. The range shifts to be appliedincrease linearly with the specific relative time at which eachindividual waveform has been acquired. The incremental range shift valuegets optimum when the shifts of the object signature present in a set ofsignal waveforms are cancelled out. Averaging the range-shiftedwaveforms then allows for the recovery of nearly the same objectsignature as would be obtained if the object had been at rest withrespect to the rangefinder. The signal to noise ratio of the resultingsignal waveform can then be increased by a factor given by the squareroot of the number of raw signal waveforms that are processed accordingto the method. The relative velocity of the object is readily deducedfrom the optimum range shift parameter and the time delay that separatestwo consecutive signal waveform acquisitions.

In yet another aspect of the invention, the signal waveforms acquired asthe line of sight of a digital optical rangefinder scans over an angularinterval are range shifted and then averaged to allow for earlydetection and ranging of objects that enter in the region covered by thescanning rangefinder. The method also enables the measurement of themotion parameters of the object from the search for the optimumcombination of parameters that maximize the amplitude of the objectsignature present in the output signal waveforms. The trajectory of anobject in regular motion can then be easily predicted from this optimumcombination of parameters. In addition, objects subjected to changes intheir motion parameters can be ranged in real time by processing thesignal waveforms acquired for a series of limited angular intervalswithin the whole angular interval covered by the digital opticalrangefinder.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be further appreciated by reference to the detaileddescriptions of the preferred embodiments in conjunction with thedrawings thereof, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an optical rangefinder withdigitization and processing of the returned signal waveforms;

FIGS. 2A to 2E (Prior Art) present a set of rangefinder signal waveformsfor the purpose of illustrating the effect of the standard signalaveraging technique for improving the noise figure of the processedoutput waveforms when ranging to an object at rest;

FIG. 3 illustrates three different functions describing how theaveraging level parameter N can be varied with the range R to theobject;

FIG. 4 illustrates the variations with the range R of thesignal-to-noise ratio of a digital rangefinder output, obtained usingthe three averaging level parameters N shown in FIG. 3. Thesignal-to-noise ratio for a single pulse return is also plotted forcomparison;

FIGS. 5A to 5D (Prior Art) show a set of rangefinder signal waveformsfor the purpose of illustrating the effect of the standard signalaveraging technique when applied to signal waveforms returned from amoving object;

FIGS. 6A to 6C show the resulting waveforms obtained by averaging a setof 200 independent signal waveforms which have been previously shiftedusing three different values of the range shift parameter (RSP);

FIG. 7 plots the maximum amplitude of the waveform generated byaveraging a range-shifted set of 200 independent signal waveforms, as afunction of the incremental range shift parameter;

FIGS. 8A to 8F show some waveforms obtained from range-shifted averagingof a set of 200 independent signal waveforms returned from an objectthat moved at two different velocities during the integration period;

FIG. 9 plots the maximum amplitude of the waveform generated byaveraging a range-shifted set of 200 independent signal waveformsreturned from an object that moved at two different velocities duringthe integration period. The signal amplitude is plotted as a function ofthe incremental range shift parameter;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a rangefinder configuration withangular scan of the line of sight according to a third preferredembodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing the straight-line trajectory ofan object moving at a constant velocity V during its transit in asubregion delimited by the lines of sight pointing at the angles θ₁ andθ_(LIM).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS General Overview of aDigital Rangefinder

The various embodiments of the invention described below are intendedfor implementation in an optical rangefinding apparatus withdigitization of the received signal waveforms. The basic elements of adigital rangefinder 10 can be better appreciated by referring to theschematic block diagram depicted in FIG. 1. The instrument comprises anoptical emitter module 12 for emission of a train of optical pulseshaving predetermined characteristics, and an optical receiver module 14for the capture and pre-processing of the return signal waveforms. Thesignal waveforms originate from the fraction of the emitted opticalpulse energy that is reflected or backscattered by the object 16 locatedat range R from the rangefinder 10, and which is in the field of view ofthe receiver optics 18. A control and processing unit 20 controls theoperation of both optical emitter 12 and optical receiver 14 modules.Among other things, the control process synchronizes the emission ofeach individual optical pulse with the start of the sampling and A/Ddata conversion of the return signal collected by the receiver module14. A digital clock 22 generates clock signals for the control andprocessing unit 20 to ensure precise timing of both modules.

Optical Emitter Module

Upon reception of a trigger signal from the control and processing unit20, the driver electronics 24 generates an electrical current pulsewhose duration lies in the ns range. The current pulse is then routed tothe light source 26 for emission of an optical pulse. The light source26 is generally a laser, but other types of optical sources, such aslight-emitting diodes (LEDs), can be envisioned without departing fromthe scope of the present invention. The use of semiconductor laser diodeassemblies now prevails in optical rangefinders. The laser diodeassembly may comprise a single-emitter laser diode, a multiple-emitterlaser diode, or even a two-dimensional stacked array of multiple-emitterlaser diodes. The specific type of light source integrated in arangefinder 10 depends, inter alia, on factors such as the peak opticaloutput power required for successful ranging at the desired maximumrange, the emission wavelength, and the device cost. Light sources suchas fiber lasers, microchip lasers and even solid-state lasers find theirway in rangefinding applications, particularly when no laser diodesource exists at the desired emission wavelength. The optical pulsespass through the emitter optics 28 before leaving the optical emittermodule 12. The emitter optics 28 shapes the optical pulses in the formof a beam having the desired propagation characteristics. The primaryoptical beam characteristics are the beam divergence, the transversesize of the beam irradiance profile at the exit aperture of the emittermodule 12 (for eye safety concerns), and the spatial beam quality. Theemitter 28 and receiver optics 18 are generally boresighted so as theoptical beam path and the field of view of the receiver module 14overlap over a predetermined range interval.

Optical Receiver Module

The return optical signals collected by the receiver optics 18 passthrough a narrowband optical filter 30 for removal of the parasiticbackground light before impinging on the sensitive surface of aphotodetector 32. The photodetector 32 is generally an avalanche or PINphotodiode with material composition suited to the wavelength of theoptical pulses. The pre-amplified voltage signal from the photodetector32 is then fed to an amplifier 34. The amplifier circuit may comprise amatched filter to limit the electrical bandwidth of the optical receivermodule 14. The control and processing unit 20 controls the amplifiergain to ensure that the signal amplitude fits within the input voltagedynamic range of the A/D converter 36. It is known in the art that otheramplifier configurations could be used as well, such as a logarithmicamplifier or a set of amplifiers mounted in parallel, each amplifierhaving a fixed gain. The A/D converter 36 digitizes the input voltagesignals at a sampling rate of typically several tens of MS/s(mega-samples per second). The time period between two consecutivedigital sampling operations defines the extent of the so-called rangebins of the instrument 10, when expressed in units of distance.

Finally, the user operates the rangefinder 10 and receives data from itthrough the user interface hardware 38. For instance, the measured rangeto the targeted object 16 can be simply displayed in digital form on aliquid-crystal or plasma visual display 40. In more sophisticatedinstruments, the full temporal/spatial shapes of the processed signalwaveforms can be graphically displayed on a monitor screen 42 and thenstored in memory for later use or processing.

Standard Averaging of Digitized Signal Waveforms

FIGS. 2A to 2C show examples of three raw signal waveforms typical ofthose that can be received and processed by digital rangefinders. Eachwaveform comprises a pulse signal indicative of the presence of areflecting object (the object signature) located at a distance of 300 mfrom the rangefinder. The object signature has a Gaussian-shaped profilewith peak amplitude of 3. The signature is hardly detected from a visualinspection of the waveforms because it is embedded in a random noisebackground having peak-to-peak amplitude of 10 (rms noise level≈2.89) inthe units employed for the vertical scale of the figures. The waveformsthen have a mean SNR of 1.04. The mean level of the noise component hasbeen up-shifted by an offset of 5 in order to better appreciate thetotal noise amplitude swing in the figures. Note that the noise isuncorrelated from waveform to waveform. The range bins are 1-m wide,meaning that the input signal waveforms have been sampled at a rate of150 MS/s. The waveforms displayed in the figure cover the range intervalfrom 0 m to 500 m, so they comprise a total of 500 sampled data points.The processed signal waveforms obtained by simple averaging of limitedsets of 20 and 200 signal waveforms are illustrated in FIGS. 2D and 2E,respectively. In this idealized example, the object signature clearlydiscriminates against noise even when averaging only a few signalwaveforms. The stationary character of the object signature along withthe perfectly uncorrelated noise components lead to processed waveformshaving SNR values that vary according to the simple lawSNR_(NET)=(N)^(1/2) SNR_(W) discussed earlier.

DESCRIPTION OF A FIRST PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTIONRange-Dependent Averaging to Improve the Response Time of a Rangefinder

As discussed earlier, the response time of an optical rangefinder thatprocesses the digitized signal waveforms may appear as unacceptably slowwhen the typical noise figure of the received waveforms calls forextensive averaging. The standard averaging operation discussed up tonow does not account for the fact that the SNR associated with an objectsignature may vary significantly with the range to the object. Asdiscussed in Section 2.4 of Byren's textbook (see R. W. Byren, “Laserrangefinders”, Chapt. 2 of The Infrared and Electro-optical SystemsHandbook Vol. 6: Active Electro-optical Systems, C. S. Fox, Editor, SPIEPress, Bellingham, Wash., 1993), the general range equation for opticalrangefinders shows that the SNR varies as 1/R² with the range R. Thissimple behavior holds for the common situation where the optical beam isfully intercepted by the targeted object. This simple behavior alsoassumes that the optical beam propagates over a short distance undergood visibility conditions so that the optical atmospheric extinctionremains negligible. The averaging level N, defined here as the number ofraw signal waveforms to be averaged, is usually set in order to get therequired SNR for objects having specific reflecting properties whilebeing located at the maximum range to be covered by the rangefinder. Asa consequence, the standard averaging process severely limits theinstrument response time, particularly when one wants to range objectslocated at close range.

One aspect of the present invention is thus to provide a method thatoptimizes the response time of a digital rangefinder for objects thatcould be located at various distances. The method takes advantage of thedependency of the SNR response of the rangefinder upon the range R tothe object. In its essence, the method consists in averaging previouslyacquired signal waveforms by using an averaging level N that is afunction of the distance. N could vary in such a way that the datapoints sampled for the farther distances are more heavily averaged thanthose corresponding to shorter distances. As a result, the response timeof the instrument would not be the same for all of the data points ofthe processed signal waveform since this response time is largelydetermined by the averaging operation. Enabling very fast responsetimes, particularly for ranging objects located at short distances, iscritical in applications such as collision-avoidance systems.

Using the symbol N(R_(i)) to represent the range-dependent averaginglevel, the proposed averaging process can be described by the followingexpression:

$\begin{matrix}{{{S_{AVE}\left( R_{i} \right)} = {\frac{1}{N\left( R_{i} \right)}{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{N{(R_{i})}}{S_{j}\left( R_{i} \right)}}}}{{i = 1},2,{3\; \ldots \mspace{11mu} N_{P}}}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

where the symbol Σ stands for the sum of a number N(R_(i)) of digitizedsignal waveforms S_(j). Each waveform S_(j) can be thought of as avector comprising N_(p) sampled data points, each sample being relatedto its corresponding discrete range value R_(i). In the above equationS_(AVE) stands for the processed waveform vector obtained from theaveraging operation.

FIG. 3 illustrates three different functions that could be used todescribe the variations of the averaging level N with the range to theobject. The selected functions are given by simple polynomials of orderone, two and four, respectively. In this example, each functionincreases monotonically with the range and it contains only two fittingparameters whose values are determined from the averaging levels desiredat the closest range N(R₁) and farthest range N(R_(Np)), respectively.For simplicity, the functions plotted in FIG. 3 all vary from N(R₁)=1(i.e., no averaging) at the minimum range R₁=10 m, to N(R_(Np))=1000 atthe maximum range R_(Np)=500 m. Note that the response time of therangefinder would display nearly the same range dependency as thefunctions plotted in the figure. In the case where the instrument woulddisplay in real time the output signal waveform on a monitor screen, theupdate rate of the displayed data points would be very fast at shortrange while progressively getting slower with increasing range.

The specific functional forms for N(R_(i)) shown in FIG. 3 have beenchosen only for the purpose of better illustrating the concept of theinvention. Several other range dependencies could be imagined forN(R_(i)) without departing from the scope of the invention. Note that,for comparison, the standard averaging process is recovered simply byselecting a fixed value of N=1000 for the whole range interval.

As noted earlier, under some conditions the net SNR resulting from theaveraging of N independent signal waveforms can be increased by amultiplicative factor (N)^(1/2) as compared to the SNR of a singlewaveform. Assuming an 1/R² range dependency for the SNR as given by thegeneral range equation for rangefinders, we have plotted in FIG. 4 thenet SNR obtained when performing the range-dependent averaging operationwith each of the three functions N(R) depicted in FIG. 3. The figurealso shows the SNR related to a single waveform, whose value has beenset to 100 at the range R=10 m, for convenience. In addition to theimproved SNRs obtained at nearly all ranges, it is seen that therange-dependent averaging process results in significant reductions ofthe overall variations of the SNR over the retained range interval. Theaveraging process of the present invention then helps in flattening theSNR response of digital rangefinders. Of particular interest in FIG. 4is the nearly flat SNR curve observed for ranges beyond approximately150 m when using an averaging level having a fourth-order R⁴ rangedependency. This behavior comes simply from the fact that the squareroot of the R⁴ range dependency cancels out the 1/R² variation of thesingle-pulse SNR plotted in the figure. Devising an optical rangefinderwith a flatter SNR response is particularly attractive for continuousranging of an object whose distance from the instrument varies, withouthaving to change repeatedly the instrument settings.

It is well known in the art that the range dependency of the raw SNR forreal optical rangefinders may depart largely from the theoretical 1/R²range equation. In addition, most of the time the real variations of theraw SNR with the range cannot be described in a satisfactory mannerneither by using a simple polynomial expression such as those used inFIG. 3 nor by using more complex analytical functions. Fortunately,there is no need to rely solely on functions to describe the averaginglevel since very valuable information in this purpose can be inferredfrom a previous measurement of the raw SNR response SNR_(W)(R) of theinstrument. In effect, if one were interested to get a net SNR responseSNR_(NET) that would remain nearly constant for all ranges, the specificrange dependency that would have to be selected for the averaging levelwould be given by the simple expression:

$\begin{matrix}{{N(R)} = \left( \frac{{SNR}_{NET}}{{SNR}_{W}(R)} \right)^{2}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

This expression is derived from the relation SNR_(NET)=(N)^(1/2) SNR_(W)discussed earlier. This approach offers the advantage of providing anaveraging level function suited specifically to the rangefinderinstrument. Furthermore, the update rate of the output data is optimizedfor each range value since the averaging operation is carried out withthe minimum number of raw signal data acquired at each range value toget the desired SNR. The function N(R) obtained from Eq. (3) could bestored in a look-up table and called by the digital processing unit whenenabling a range-dependent averaging operation on a set of receivedsignal waveforms.

DESCRIPTION OF A SECOND PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

Averaging of Range-Shifted Signal Waveforms Returned from an Object inMotion

As mentioned earlier, the successful detection of object signatures whenusing the noise reduction capability of a data averaging process callsfor a set of signal waveforms corrupted with random, uncorrelated noisewhile the object signatures must be stationary. Unfortunately, therequirement for stationary signal features is clearly not fulfilled whentrying to range an object that is moving over a sizable distance duringthe integration time. FIG. 5 clearly illustrates the basic limitation ofthe standard data averaging process when applied to such an event. Forinstance, FIGS. 5A to 5C show three individual raw signal waveforms thatform part of a set of 200 waveforms generated by computer simulation ofa ranging operation performed on a remote object in motion along theline of sight of the rangefinder. The arrow visible in each figureindicates the position of the object signature at the moment thewaveform was acquired. In this specific example, the object was movingat a constant velocity from the initial distance R=50 m up to the finaldistance R=450 m during the integration time. The total 400-m move ofthe object then means that its signature is right-shifted by 2 m onconsecutive waveforms. The selected object reflectivity lead tounprocessed waveforms with SNRs of nearly unity. As a consequence, theobject signature cannot be easily detected from a simple visualinspection of the unprocessed waveforms. For simplicity, the response ofthe digital rangefinder was artificially kept uniform over the rangeinterval covered by the horizontal axis of each figure, so that the peaksignal amplitude (without noise) remains the same for the initial,intermediate, and final object positions shown in FIGS. 5A to 5C,respectively. However, it can be noted that this convenient assumptionis not required for the operation of the method, and it does not limitits scope.

FIG. 5D shows the waveform obtained from the standard averaging of the200 raw signal waveforms. This simple averaging process succeeded inreducing the rms noise level due to the fact that the noise componentswere fully random and uncorrelated. Unfortunately, one readily sees thatthe signal returned by the object has been totally washed out by theaveraging operation. Because of the non-stationary character of theobject signature, the rangefinder would inevitably fail at ranging theobject in motion when attempting to compare the processed signalwaveform shown in FIG. 5D with its detection threshold. Furthermore, itcan be observed that the result would not have been significantly betterby using raw waveforms having much higher SNRs. This is due to the factthat the effect of the averaging operation would be limited to spreadthe object signature over the range interval covered by the objectduring its motion, without any enhancement of its relative peak signalamplitude.

The signal waveforms generated when aiming a digital rangefinder at anobject that moves at a constant velocity would display essentially thesame object signature, but shifted by a distance ΔD from waveform towaveform. The shift ΔD is simply given by ΔD=V×τ, where V is the objectvelocity along the line of sight of the rangefinder while τ stands forthe time delay between the receptions of two consecutive signalwaveforms. An objective of this second preferred embodiment of thepresent invention is to implement a dedicated averaging process thatwould allow for the recovery of nearly the same object signature aswould be obtained with standard averaging of the signal waveformsreturned by an identical object, but at rest. Stated otherwise, the SNRenhancement would not be affected by the fact that the ranged object isin motion. The principle of this second embodiment relies on theimplementation of a controlled range shift of each individual waveform,prior to averaging. The shifts would be performed numerically in such away that their collective effect would attempt at canceling out thetranslation of the targeted object along the line of sight of theinstrument. As noted earlier, the object velocity remains unknown at thetime the raw waveforms are processed since the object signature isgenerally buried in noise. As a consequence, the exact amount of rangeshift to be applied for optimizing the recovery of the object signatureis not known a priori. The procedure then consists in averaging thewhole waveform set repeatedly, by using different values of theparameter that controls the range shift applied to each waveform. Thisparameter will be referred to as the range shift parameter (RSP). Theoptimum value of the RSP would then be inferred from the specific valueit takes when the amplitude of the “reconstructed” object signature getsmaximum. In other words, the optimum range shift would be obtained whenRSP=−ΔD. The minus sign comes from the fact that a negative range shiftmust be applied to the waveforms when it is known that the targetedobject moves away from the rangefinder, i.e., when the motion ischaracterized by a positive ΔD.

For any given value of the RSP, the elements of the waveform vectorS_(RSP) constructed by averaging a range-shifted waveform set read as:

$\begin{matrix}{{{S_{RSP}\left( R_{i} \right)} = {\frac{1}{N_{W}}{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{N_{W}}{S_{j}\left( R_{k} \right)}}}}{{i = 1},2,{3\; \ldots \mspace{11mu} N_{P}}}} & (4)\end{matrix}$

where the index k depends on both indices i and j since:

$\begin{matrix}{k = {i - {{{int}\;\left\lbrack \frac{\left( {j - 1} \right)\; {RSP}}{\Delta \; R} \right\rbrack}.}}} & (5)\end{matrix}$

The symbol N_(W) in Eq. (4) is the number of individual waveforms to beprocessed. In Eq. (5), ΔR represents the spacing between consecutiverange vector elements R_(i) (i.e., ΔR is the size of the range bins),while the function int[ ] denotes the nearest integer of the result ofthe expression enclosed in brackets. The above equation clearly showsthat the range shift applied to any given waveform increases linearlywith the rank j of the waveform in the whole set. For simplicity, thefirst waveform S₁ is left unchanged in the process detailed by Eq. (4),that is, k=i for j=1. This means that the reconstructed signature of amoving object will be located at the range the object was at the momentthe rangefinder received the first waveform of the set, that is, at R=50m in the present example. Note that for large values of RSP, the sum inEq. (4) may need to be stopped before the index j attains its higherbound N_(W) since the index k must always be positive.

Using the same raw waveform set as in the example depicted in FIG. 5,the range-shift averaging process of the present invention has beenconducted by sweeping the value of the range shift parameter RSP from−10 m to +10 m by steps of 1 m. FIGS. 6A to 6C display the resultingsignal waveforms averaged by using the specific values RSP=−3 m, −2 mand −1 m, respectively. As previously mentioned, the object was movingso that the distance of the peak amplitude of the signal it returned tothe rangefinder increased by ΔD=+2 m from waveform to waveform. As seenin FIG. 6B, the object signature is fully recovered by the averagingprocess when using the value RSP=−ΔD=−2 m. In fact, the waveformdisplayed in FIG. 6B is nearly identical to the one that would beobtained if the object would have been left stationary at the range R=50m. For an object that moves at a constant velocity, the SNR-enhancingcapability of the standard data averaging method is maintained whenimplementing the range-shifted averaging process of the presentinvention.

To gain more insight on the effect of the RSP on the range-shiftedaveraging process, the signal amplitude of the object signature detectedin the resulting waveforms has been plotted in FIG. 7 for the wholeinterval over which the RSP was varied. The signal clearly stands out atthe optimum value RSP=−2 m, thus making its detection very easy, as itwas shown in the waveform illustrated in FIG. 6B. The signal amplitudeplotted in FIG. 7 tends towards the background offset level (set to 5 inthis example) as the RSP departs from the optimum value. Note that theaveraging process of the present invention can also be used for rangingobjects at rest, but in this situation the signal amplitude would peakfor the specific value RSP=0 m.

Having found the optimum RSP, dividing its sign-reversed value by thetime delay that separates two consecutive acquisitions of signalwaveforms gives the velocity at which the object was moving along theline of sight of the rangefinder.

The extent of the interval over which the RSP is swept impacts heavilyon the processing effort required for completing the range-shiftedaveraging process. Selecting a very wide interval is a safe approachthat calls for a lot of computations, whereas the procedure would failto recover the static object signature if the optimum RSP falls outsideof an interval that is too narrow. Fortunately, an educated guess forsetting the limits of this interval could be based on the reasonablemaximum velocity expected for the class of moving objects to be ranged.Knowing the maximum object velocity to be measured by the instrumentallows to readily determine the corresponding maximum range shift ΔD ofthe signal returned by the object for a given time delay betweensuccessive signal acquisitions. This time delay depends primarily on thepulse repetition frequency of the optical emitter module of therangefinder. The RSP can then be varied over an interval that encloses,with safe margins, the expected maximum range shift.

As a practical example, we consider the implementation of the method inan optical rangefinder that forms part of a forward-lookingcollision-avoidance system installed in a vehicle. The maximum absolutespeed of a vehicle to range could be set to 150 km/h. Assuming that thecar in which the rangefinder is installed could move at the same maximumabsolute speed, the relative travel speed of an obstacle that is movingtowards the car would then not exceed 300 km/h, or 83 m/s. With a timedelay of 1 ms between successive signal acquisitions, as would beobtained with a rangefinder emitting optical pulses at 1-kHz PRF, theobject signature would be shifted by about −8 cm on consecutivewaveforms. This range shift is smaller than the range bin size obtainedwhen sampling with an A/D converter clocked at several tens of MS/s. Asa result, dedicated numerical processing may be required to perform therange shifts of the signal waveforms.

The incremental step used in the search for the optimum value of the RSPimpacts heavily on the precision with which the relative velocity of anobject in motion can be measured. Obviously, using smaller incrementscould lead to more precise velocity measurements, but the number ofrange-shifted averaging operations to perform would increaseaccordingly. As shown in the curve of FIG. 7, the peak signal amplitudeplotted as a function of the RSP has a unique and well-defined peak whenthe object is moving at a constant velocity. The precision at which thepeak of the curve in FIG. 7 is located determines the precision of thevelocity measurement. Instead of using a simple scan of the RSP over aselected interval, as described above, one skilled in the art couldreadily implement efficient algorithms that would allow better precisionfor locating the peak visible in FIG. 7.

The scope of the range-shifted averaging process of the presentinvention is not limited to objects that move at a constant velocity.For instance, FIGS. 8A to 8F illustrate the signal waveforms obtainedafter having range shifted a set of 200 waveforms that simulated theranging to an object that was moving from R=50 m to R=350 m at a firstvelocity V₁ and then moving at a lower velocity V₂ for R=350 m to R=475m. The velocity V₁ resulted in an object signature that was displaced byΔD₁=+4 m on consecutive waveform acquisitions while the second velocitygave a range shift ΔD₂=+1 m. As seen in the figures, the presence ofwell-defined signal peaks in the averaged signal waveforms is clearlydetected for RSP values of −4 m (FIG. 8B) and −1 m (FIG. 8E). Themaximum amplitude of the signal peaks relates to the number of waveformsacquired during each period the object was moving at a constantvelocity. FIG. 9 shows the peak signal amplitude of the averagedwaveforms plotted as a function of the RSP. The movement of the objectat two different velocities is clearly guessed from a visual inspectionof FIG. 9. In practice, the limited acceleration of the object whenpassing from the first velocity to the second one would lead to abroadening of the signal peaks visible in FIG. 9 while slightlydecreasing their maximum amplitudes. Above all, the shape of the peaksignal amplitude plotted as a function of the RSP gives usefulinformation about the motion of an object that is ranged with a digitalrangefinder that processes the signal waveforms according to the methoddescribed in this second embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF A THIRD PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Averagingof Range-Shifted Signal Waveforms in Scanning Rangefinder Applications

When used for the monitoring of aerial drifts of aerosol clouds or incollision-avoidance systems for vehicles, rangefinders often have theirline of sight repeatedly scanned in an automatic fashion in order tocover a zone of interest. The maximum range covered by the rangefinderand both extreme angular deviations of its line of sight during thescans define the boundaries of the monitored zone. In both applicationsmentioned above, the object to be ranged is generally in motion relativeto the rangefinder, so that the standard averaging of a set of returnedsignal waveforms cannot enhance the SNR. The situation becomesparticularly dramatic when one attempts at ranging sparse aerosol cloudsthat return very weak pulse echoes. In collision-avoidance systems, anyobject located in front of the vehicle must be detected and ranged atdistances far enough from the vehicle to allow the system to react in atimely manner to the presence of the object. In addition, the pulseechoes returned by a solid object such as a vehicle could be relativelyweak when ranging under adverse weather or degraded visibilityconditions. As a consequence, in both applications the successfulranging of objects in motion is generally not possible from a singlesignal waveform while the standard averaging of a set of waveforms is oflittle help. In a third preferred embodiment of the present invention, amethod is described that allows significant improvements of the SNRresponse of scanning rangefinders used in applications such as thosediscussed above. The method can be thought of as an extension of theaveraging of range-shifted waveforms received when ranging along a fixedline of sight, as previously described in the second preferredembodiment.

The method of this third preferred embodiment finds its best use inapplications that rely on a scanning rangefinder configuration such asthe one illustrated in the schematic diagram of FIG. 10. In thisconfiguration, the aiming direction of an optical rangefinder 50 isscanned over a zone of interest whose angular extent is defined by thefan-out angle 2θ_(C). θ_(C) represents the maximum tilt angle of theaiming direction symmetrically on either side of the X axis 52 depictedin the figure. When the rangefinder 50 is in operation, its aimingdirection is scanned repeatedly with an angular velocity ω (radians/s)from the initial direction 54 pointing at the angle θ=+θ_(C) up to thefinal direction 56 pointing at θ=−θ_(C). Each individual angular scan istemporarily stopped at a predetermined set of angles θ_(i), i=1 to NA toallow the firing of an optical pulse and the subsequent capture of apulse echo possibly returned by an object that could intersect theoptical beam. The rangefinder 50 is then operating preferably in thecommon “stare and shoot” regime. The specific angles θ_(i) at whichsignal waveforms are collected will be referred to as the lines of sightof the scanning rangefinder 50. For the sake of clarity, FIG. 10 showsonly both outer lines of sight 54 and 56. NA stands for the number oflines of sight enclosed in the fan-out angle 2θ_(C). The tilt angleθ_(i) of each discrete line of sight is measured with respect to the Xaxis 52 (set by convention to 0°), with the angle values beingincreasing when rotating counterclockwise. The lines of sight all lie inthe same plane, which is set horizontally in most practicalapplications. The schematic diagram of FIG. 10 then shows a top view ofthe scanning rangefinder configuration. However, it must be understoodthat the angular scans can be performed in any other plane withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention.

The filled rectangle 58 in FIG. 10 depicts an object in motion thatcrosses the outer line of sight 54 to enter in the zone monitored by thescanning rangefinder 50. The curved solid line 60 illustrates an exampleof a possible trajectory of the object 58 during its transit in themonitored zone. The object 58 is coming from the left for an observerstanding at the position of the rangefinder 50 and facing the X axis 52.However, one can readily imagine that the object 58 may also come fromthe right. In the latter case it will first intersect the line of sight56 that points along the angle θ_(NA)=−θ_(C). Finally, the object 62 andits corresponding trajectory 64 depict another practical case of figurewherein the object to be detected and ranged is already present in themonitored zone when the rangefinder 50 starts its sequence of angularscans. This leads naturally to the more general situation where severalobjects could be present in the monitored zone while movingindependently from each other.

In most practical situations, the object 58 does not travel along astraight-line path during its transit in the monitored zone since themagnitude V and direction θ_(V) of its velocity vector may change in anunpredictable fashion. The shape of its trajectory 60 clearlyillustrates such a situation. In fact, there is no need to require thatan object 58 be in regular motion in the entire zone defined by thefan-out angle 2θ_(C) to use the method of the present invention.However, the operation of the method requires that the object 58 bemoving with constant velocities (in both magnitude and direction) withina set of contiguous subregions of limited extents, each subregionenclosing a number of lines of sight. Stated otherwise, it is assumedthat the trajectory 60 of the object 58 can be approximated as asuccession of short straight-line paths, each path being traveled at aconstant velocity.

The schematic diagram shown in FIG. 11 differs from that of FIG. 10 bythe fact that it focuses on the straight-line trajectory 66 of theobject 58 that moves at a constant velocity V during its passage in afirst subregion. The specific subregion shown in the diagram encloses asubset of lines of sight starting from the outer line of sight atθ₁=+θ_(C) and finishing at the line of sight that points along an angleθ_(NL)=θ_(LIM). For clarity, the diagram shows only a few of these linesof sight and the size of the subregion has been exaggerated as comparedto the size of the entire zone scanned by the rangefinder 50. NLrepresents the number of lines of sight enclosed in the subregion. Thisnumber depends on the angular extent of the subregion and on theincremental angular step between two consecutive lines of sight. As willbe shown below, the enhancement of the SNR response of the rangefinder50 scales as (NL)^(1/2), so that NL should preferably be as high aspossible. On the other hand, each subregion must be kept small enoughnot to invalidate the convenient assumption of an object travelling witha constant velocity vector. NL should not be confused with the number NA(NA>>NL) of lines of sight enclosed in the fan-out angle 2θ_(C), asdiscussed previously. The filled dots 68 in FIG. 11 illustrate theplaces where the straight-line trajectory 66 of the object 58 intersectsthe various lines of sight that fall within the subregion.

The distance D_(i) from the rangefinder 50 at which the object 58intersects any given line of sight θ_(i) in the subregion depends solelyon the values of the kinematic parameters V and θ_(V) of the object 58and of the distance D₁ of its intersection with the first line of sightθ₁. Using the symbol t_(i) to describe the time at which the object 58intersects any given line of sight θ_(i), the regular motion of theobject 58 along the straight-line trajectory 66 causes the quantitiesD_(i) and t_(i) to be related to the kinematic parameters of the objectthrough the formulas:

$\begin{matrix}{D_{i} = {{{D_{REF}\left( \frac{\sin \left( {\theta_{REF} - \theta_{V}} \right)}{\sin \left( {\theta_{i} - \theta_{V}} \right)} \right)}\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} t_{i}} = {{\frac{D_{REF}}{V}\left( \frac{\sin \left( {\theta_{REF} - \theta_{i}} \right)}{\sin \left( {\theta_{i} - \theta_{V}} \right)} \right)} + t_{REF}}}} & (6)\end{matrix}$

The subscript REF means that the corresponding parameters pertain to areference line of sight, which is given by the line of sight pointing atthe angle θ₁=+θ_(C) for the specific subregion shown in FIG. 11. We haveemployed the subscript REF to stress the fact that the application ofEq. (6) is not limited to the sole subregion shown in FIG. 11. Hence,the reference line of sight associated to any other subregion would begiven by the first line of sight the object 58 would cross. Bothkinematic parameters V and θ_(V) are defined with respect to the X-Yreference frame 70 of the rangefinder 50, which could be moving as well.V and θ_(V) must then be understood as the relative velocity andrelative direction of travel of the object 58, respectively, during itstransit in the subregion depicted in the figure.

As mentioned earlier, the purpose of this third preferred embodiment ofthe invention is to enable a scanning rangefinder 50 to detect and rangemoving objects 58 by increasing the SNR of the resulting signalwaveforms via dedicated numerical processing that involves range shiftoperations. The method consists in range shifting raw signal waveformsreceived for a set of lines of sight comprised in a given subregion. Toallow the ranging of the object as soon as it enters in the monitoredzone, it is preferable to perform the method in a first step byprocessing only the signal waveforms acquired as the rangefinder waspointing in the subregion shown in FIG. 11, which is delimited on oneside by the outer line of sight 54 at θ₁=+θ_(C). The method would thenbe applied in a second step for the opposite subregion, i.e., thesubregion bounded on one side by the outer line of sight 56. This secondstep is to allow the early detection of an object 58 that could comefrom the right-hand side of the rangefinder 50. Having “scanned” bothsubregions contiguous to the outer lines of sight 54 and 56, the nextsteps of the procedure would consist in applying the method for a set ofcontiguous subregions in order to cover progressively the entire zone tobe monitored. For the sake of simplicity, the following description ofthe method will be mostly focused on the specific subregion shown inFIG. 11, but it should be noted that the method applies to the othersubregions as well.

The object signature present in a signal waveform acquired as therangefinder 50 was pointing along a line of sight θ_(i) will be shiftedby the quantity ΔD_(i)=D_(i)−D₁ relative to the same signature presentin the waveform received at the reference line of sight 54. The distanceD_(i) can be predicted from Eq. (6) since the object is assumed to bemoving at a constant velocity in the subregion. Performing a range shiftby the amount −ΔD_(i) for the waveform and then repeating for each lineof sight will give a set of NL waveforms (one for each line of sight)that could then be averaged in order to increase the final SNR by afactor of nearly (N_(L))^(1/2). An important aspect of the method isthat the range shifts must be performed without any a priori knowledgeof the real kinematic parameters V and θ_(V) of the object 58 during itstravel in the subregion. The distance D₁ and moment t₁ at which itcrossed the reference line of sight 54 are not known as well. It must berecalled in this purpose that the present method finds its best use insituations where the object signature that could be present in thesignal waveforms is embedded in noise. It must also be noted thatseveral waveforms have been acquired for each line of sight comprised inthe subregion, due to the fact that several angular scans have beencompleted prior to the start of the numerical processing of thewaveforms. Assuming that the object 58 crossed the subregion during thetime required to perform the angular scans, only a few waveforms (andpossibly a single one) could contain a signal indicative of the presenceof the object 58 for each line of sight. In most practical applications,the motion of any object of interest to be ranged is slow compared tothe scanning velocity of the rangefinder 50. It can therefore be assumedthat at least one waveform comprising a signature of the object 58 canbe recorded for each line of sight enclosed in the subregion. Similarlyto the method described in the second embodiment of the invention, thevalue of (at least) one parameter describing the motion of the object 58will need to be varied over a prescribed interval in order to find theoptimum value of this parameter from the result of the averaging of therange-shifted waveforms. In the present context, the values of the fourparameters V, θ_(V), D₁ and t₁ governing the regular motion of theobject 58 in the subregion will need to be varied simultaneously withintheir specific intervals for searching the optimum combination thatwould lead to a reconstructed waveform that maximizes its SNR. The basicsteps of the procedure can be detailed in the following manner:

-   -   1. Program the rangefinder to perform several angular scans over        the full fan-out angle 2θ_(C) to acquire a set of signal        waveforms S(R_(i), θ=θ_(j), t=t_(j,k)) during a given time        period and for a set of discrete lines of sight θ_(j). Store the        waveforms into memory. The moment at which the first angular        scan is started sets the origin of the time count.    -   2. Gather the signal waveforms acquired for the lines of sight        comprised within a first subregion bounded on one side by the        reference line of sight at the angle θ₁=+θ_(C). This is the        subregion shown in FIG. 11. In other words, gather only the        lines of sight θ_(j) with θ_(LIM)≦θ_(j)≦θ₁ to allow early        detection of an object coming possibly from the left-hand side        of the rangefinder.    -   3. Set the boundaries of the intervals over which the parameters        V, θ_(V), D₁ and t₁ governing the regular motion of the object        58 will be varied as well as the incremental steps of the        parameters.    -   4. Using Eq. (6), predict for a first combination (V, θ_(V), D₁,        t₁) the time t_(j) at which the object should have intersected        the line of sight θ_(j). Retrieve from memory the signal        waveform S(R_(i), θ_(j), t_(j,k)) whose specific acquisition        time t_(j,k) is the closest to the predicted time of        intersection t_(j). Repeat the present step for each line of        sight θ_(j) enclosed in the subregion.    -   5. Using Eq. (6), compute the quantity ΔD_(j)=D_(j)−D₁ and then        perform a range shift of the retrieved signal waveform S(R_(i),        θ_(j), t_(j,k)≈t_(j)) by the amount −ΔD_(j). Repeat the present        step for all of the signal waveforms retrieved in step 4.    -   6. Compute the average of the signal waveforms that have been        range shifted in the preceding step. Record the peak signal        amplitude of the resulting signal waveform and its corresponding        range R.    -   7. Repeat Step 4 through Step 6 for each combination (V, θ_(V),        D₁, t₁). The number of combinations to be tested is given by        N_(V)×N_(θ)×N_(D)×N_(T) where N_(V), N_(θ), N_(D) and N_(T) are        the numbers of incremental steps for variation of the four        parameters.    -   8. From the whole set of peak signal amplitudes obtained in Step        7, identify the one at which the amplitude gets maximum. Record        the corresponding optimum combination (V, θ_(V), D₁, t₁)_(OPT)        that was used to get the corresponding signal waveform.    -   9. The ranging operation is considered successful if the maximum        signal amplitude found in Step 8 exceeds a preset detection        threshold.    -   10. If no object has been successfully ranged in Step 9, repeat        Step 2 through Step 9 for a subregion contiguous to the        reference line of sight tilted at the opposite angle        θ_(NA)=−θ_(C), and retrieve the signal waveforms acquired for        the lines of sight θ_(j) enclosed in this subregion. Replace D₁        by D_(NA) and t₁ by t_(NA) as well, to reflect the change of the        reference line of sight. This step is to allow the early        detection of an object coming possibly from the right-hand side        of the rangefinder.    -   11. Upon successful ranging of an object, the optimum        combination (V, θ_(V), D₁, t₁)_(OPT) or (V, θ_(V), D_(NA),        t_(NA))_(OPT) gives directly the real kinematic parameters of        the object during its transit in the subregion.        Application-specific actions can then be undertaken, such as the        display of the signal waveform obtained from the optimum        combination, the display of the object kinematic parameters, the        conduction of a hazard assessment from the predicted trajectory        of the object, etc. . . .

The procedure steps listed above are intended for the ranging in realtime of a moving object 58 as soon as it enters from either side in thezone monitored by a rangefinder 50. This is the reason why the rangeshift operations are performed on the signal waveforms acquired for bothspecific subregions contiguous to the outer lines of sight 54 and 56shown in FIGS. 10 and 11. Depending on the needs of the specificapplication, Steps 1 through 9 listed above could be repeated for theother subregions enclosed in the full fan-out angle 2θ_(C), eachsubregion having its own reference line of sight. The procedure thenremains basically the same, except for the fact that the four intervalsfor generating each combination (V, θ_(V), D, t) can be made narrowerthan for both outer subregions, and they can be centered on the optimumvalues previously determined. Note, however, that the specific intervalsfor both parameters V and θ_(V) must be kept wide enough to allowsufficient room for dealing with any change in the kinematic parametersof the object 58 during its transit in the zone covered by therangefinder 50.

The need for keeping the intervals of variation of the parameters V,θ_(V), D and t wide enough becomes more evident when consideringsituations where more than one object could be simultaneously present inany subregion in which the method is applied. More than one optimumcombination (V, θ_(V), D, t)_(OPT) would be found in this situation, butthe corresponding peak signal amplitudes will generally not be the same.Fortunately, this situation can be easily tackled by performing therange shift procedure steps detailed above simultaneously for eachobject, so that the objects could be ranged individually in real time.

Performing the range shift process for the inner subregions enclosed inthe full fan-out angle 2θ_(C) enables the timely detection and rangingof objects that enter in the monitored zone without intersecting any ofthe outer lines of sight 54 or 56. For a collision-avoidance systemmounted in a vehicle, one can easily imagine that a remote vehicle thatmoves along a direction nearly parallel to the X axis 52 in FIG. 10could be approaching the rangefinder from the front. Likewise, ascanning rangefinder used for ranging clouds of aerosols must be able todetect clouds that appear suddenly in the interior of a monitored zone.A representative example could be given by a scanning rangefinder thatranges the aerial drifts of smoke plumes exhausted from a set ofchimneys located at different places in a zone covered by the angularscans.

While the preferred embodiments of the invention in their variousaspects have been described above, such descriptions are to be taken asillustrative of embodiments of the invention rather than descriptions ofthe intended scope of the invention, which scope is more fullyappreciated by reference to the disclosure as a whole and to the claimsthat follow.

1. A method for processing the signal waveforms generated by anapparatus for optically sensing a remote object, comprising the stepsof: (a) providing said apparatus for optically sensing said object, saidapparatus including means for (a1) sending optical pulses towards saidobject, (a2) receiving the optical signals reflected by said object,(a3) converting said optical signals into digital signal waveforms, eachof the said digital signal waveforms being formed of data sampled at apredetermined number N_(p) of range values R_(i), i=1, 2, 3, . . . ,N_(p), and (a4) numerically processing said digital signal waveforms,(b) selecting a function N(R_(i)) that gives the number of data samplesto be averaged for each said range value R_(i), (c) computing theaverage of a quantity N(R_(i)) of signal data sampled at a first rangevalue R_(i) each time a quantity N(R_(i)) of signal waveforms has beengenerated, (d) updating an average signal amplitude previously measuredat said range R_(i) with the result computed in step (c), (e) repeatingsteps (c) and (d) for each said range value R_(i), whereby the responsetime of said apparatus is minimized for each said range R_(i) byaveraging only the quantity N(R_(i)) of data sampled at each said rangeR_(i) that is required to get a desired signal to noise ratio at eachsaid range R_(i).
 2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said providedapparatus for optically sensing a remote object is a laser rangefinder.3. A method according to claim 1 wherein said provided apparatus foroptically sensing a remote object is a lidar.
 4. A method according toclaim 1 wherein said provided apparatus for optically sensing a remoteobject uses at least one light-emitting diode as means for sendingoptical pulses towards said object.
 5. A method according to claim 1wherein said function N(R_(i)) increases monotonically with said rangevalue R_(i).
 6. A method according to claim 1 wherein said functionN(R_(i)) is given by a polynomial expression of order comprised in theinterval of 1 to
 4. 7. A method according to claim 1 wherein saidfunction N(R_(i)) is given by the square of the ratio between a desiredvalue for the signal to noise ratio of the processed signal waveformsand the real signal to noise ratio measured at each range value R_(i)for a single raw signal waveform.
 8. A method for increasing the signalto noise ratio of the signal waveforms generated by an apparatus foroptically sensing a remote object in relative motion along the line ofsight of said apparatus, comprising the steps of: (a) providing saidapparatus for optically sensing said object, said apparatus includingmeans for (a1) sending a predetermined number N_(S) of optical pulsestowards said object, (a2) receiving a number N_(S) of optical signalsreflected by said object, (a3) converting said number N_(S) of opticalsignals into a number N_(S) of digital signal waveforms S_(k), k=1, 2,3, . . . , N_(S), each of the said digital signal waveforms being formedof data sampled at a predetermined number N_(p) of range values R_(i),i=1, 2, 3, . . . , N_(p), and (a4) numerically processing said digitalsignal waveforms, (b) selecting a set of range shift parameter valuesRSP_(j), j=1, 2, 3, . . . , N_(R), (c) performing a range shift of eachsaid waveform S_(k) by the value (k−1)×RSP_(j), (d) generating awaveform SA_(j) by computing the average of the N_(S) said waveformsS_(k) range shifted according to step (c), (e) finding the peak signalamplitude comprised in the averaged signal waveform SA_(j), (f)repeating steps (c) to (e) for the N_(R) values of said range shiftparameter RSP_(j) as selected in step (b), (g) finding the values ofsaid range shift parameter that give averaged signal waveforms havingpeak signal amplitudes exceeding a predetermined threshold, (h)combining the averaged signal waveforms determined in step (g) andupdating a previously measured signal waveform having the maximum peaksignal amplitude with said waveform combination.
 9. A method accordingto claim 8 wherein said provided apparatus for optically sensing aremote object is a laser rangefinder.
 10. A method according to claim 8wherein said provided apparatus for optically sensing a remote object isa lidar.
 11. A method according to claim 8 wherein said providedapparatus for optically sensing a remote object uses at least onelight-emitting diode as means for sending optical pulses towards saidobject.
 12. A method according to claim 8 further including the step ofdetermining the range to said object from the range value R_(i) at whichthe maximum signal amplitude occurs in the waveform combinationdetermined in step (h).
 13. A method according to claim 8 furtherincluding the step of measuring the relative velocities of said objectalong the line of sight of said provided apparatus by computing theratio of the sign-reversed range shift parameters determined in step (g)by the time delay between detections of two consecutive optical signalsreflected by said object.
 14. A method according to claim 8 wherein saidremote object consists of a plurality of distinct objects, each saiddistinct object moving independently from each other along the line ofsight of said apparatus.
 15. A method according to claim 14 furtherincluding the step of measuring the relative velocities of said distinctobjects along the line of sight of said provided apparatus by computingthe ratio of the sign-reversed range shift parameters determined in step(g) by the time delay between detections of two consecutive opticalsignals reflected by said distinct objects.
 16. A method according toclaim 8 wherein said set of range shift parameter values RSP_(j) isdetermined from a series of N_(R) equally-spaced values comprised withina predetermined interval.
 17. A method according to claim 14 whereinsaid interval includes range shift parameter values associated to saidobject moving at a relative velocities comprised between a predeterminedminimum velocity and a predetermined maximum velocity.
 18. A methodaccording to claim 8 further including the step of recording the maximumsignal amplitude of said averaged signal waveform obtained from eachvalue of said range shift parameter, and displaying said maximum signalamplitude as a function of said range shift parameter, whereby themotion of said object at more than one velocity value can be determinedfrom said displayed maximum signal amplitude.
 19. A method forincreasing the signal to noise ratio of the signal waveforms generatedby an apparatus for optically sensing a remote object that moves in azone covered by said apparatus, comprising the steps of: (a) providingsaid apparatus for optically sensing said object, said apparatusincluding means for (a1) angularly scanning its line of sight to cover apredetermined zone, (a2) sending at least one optical pulse at eachpredetermined line of sight tilted by an angle θ_(j) relative to areference direction, (a3) receiving for each predetermined line of sightθ_(j) at least one optical signal, (a4) converting said optical signalsinto digital signal waveforms S, each of the said digital signalwaveforms being formed of data sampled at a predetermined number N_(p)of range values R_(i), i=1, 2, 3, . . . , N_(p), and (a5) storing intomemory said signal waveforms S(R_(i), θ_(j), t_(k)) acquired for eachline of sight θ_(j) and for each acquisition time t_(k), (a6)numerically processing said digital signal waveforms, (b) retrievingfrom said memory the signal waveforms S acquired for the lines of sightθ_(j) enclosed in an angular subregion delimited by predeterminedboundary angles θ_(REF) and θ_(LIM), so that θ_(LIM)≦θ_(j)≦θ_(REF), (c)selecting intervals over which the values of the object velocity V, theobject direction of travel θ_(V), the distance of intersection D_(REF)of said object with the reference line of sight θ_(REF) and the timet_(REF) of intersection with said reference line of sight θ_(REF) willbe varied, (d) computing for a first combination of parameters V, θ_(V),D_(REF), t_(REF) the time t_(j) at which said object could haveintersected a first line of sight θ_(j) enclosed in said angularsubregion, and retrieving the signal waveform S(R_(i), θ_(j), t_(k))acquired at the time t_(k) which is the closest to said computed timet_(j), (e) computing for said first combination of parameters V, θ_(V),D_(REF), t_(REF) the distance D_(j) from said apparatus at which theobject could have intersected said first line of sight θ_(j), (f)performing a range shift by the quantity D_(REF)−D_(j) of said signalwaveform S(R_(i), θ_(j), t_(k)) retrieved in step (d), (g) repeatingstep (d) to (f) for each said line of sight θ_(j) enclosed in saidangular subregion, (h) generating a waveform SA by computing the averageof the set of signal waveforms that have been range-shifted according tostep (g), (i) repeating steps (d) to (h) for each different combinationof said parameters V, θ_(V), D_(REF), t_(REF), j) finding the specificcombination of said parameters V, θ_(V), D_(REF), t_(REF), that gives anaveraged signal waveform SA having the maximum signal amplitude, (k)updating a previous signal waveform having the maximum signal amplitudewith the one determined in step (j), (l) updating motion parameters ofsaid object with the said combination of parameters V, θ_(V), D_(REF),t_(REF) determined in step (j).
 20. A method according to claim 19wherein said provided apparatus for optically sensing a remote object isa laser rangefinder.
 21. A method according to claim 19 wherein saidprovided apparatus for optically sensing a remote object is a lidar. 22.A method according to claim 19 wherein said provided apparatus foroptically sensing a remote object uses at least one light-emitting diodeas means for sending optical pulses towards said object.
 23. A methodaccording to claim 19 further including the step of repeating steps (b)to (l) for a set of angular subregions, each of the said angularsubregions being delimited by predetermined values of the boundaryangles θ_(REF) and θ_(LIM).
 24. A method according to claim 19 furtherincluding the step of measuring the range to said object from thedistance D_(REF) determined in step (l).
 25. A method according to claim23 wherein the boundary angle θ_(REF) of the first angular subregionpoints along the maximum right-sided deviation of the line of sight ofsaid apparatus, whereby an object coming from the right is ranged assoon as it enters in the zone covered by said apparatus.
 26. A methodaccording to claim 23 wherein the boundary angle θ_(REF) of the secondangular subregion points along the maximum left-sided deviation of theline of sight of said apparatus, whereby an object coming from the leftis ranged as soon as it enters in the zone covered by said apparatus.27. A method according to claim 23 wherein said first combination ofparameters V, θ_(V), D_(REF), t_(REF) for each angular subregion isgiven by the specific combination of parameters that maximized thesignal amplitude comprised in the averaged signal waveform obtained fromthe preceding angular subregion, whereby an object in regular motion isranged using a reduced set of combination parameters V, θ_(V), D_(REF),t_(REF).
 28. An apparatus for optically sensing a remote object, saidapparatus comprising: an optical emitter module for sending opticalpulses towards said object; an optical receiver module for receivingoptical signals reflected by said object and for converting said opticalsignals into digital signal waveforms; and a control and processing unitfor processing said digital signal waveforms, said control andprocessing unit being adapted to: (a) sample said digital signalwaveforms at a predetermined number N_(p) of range values R_(i), i=1, 2,3, . . . , N_(p); (b) select a function N(R_(i)) that gives the numberof data samples to be averaged for each range value R_(i); (c) computethe average of a quantity N(R_(i)) of signal data sampled at a firstrange value R_(i) each time a quantity N(R_(i)) of signal waveforms hasbeen generated; (d) update an average signal amplitude previouslymeasured at said range R_(i) with the result computed above; andrepeating step (c) for each range value R_(i), whereby the response timeof said apparatus is minimized for each range R_(i) by averaging onlythe quantity N(R_(i)) of data sampled at each range R_(i) that isrequired to get a desired signal to noise ratio at each range R_(i). 29.An apparatus for measuring a range of a remote object, said apparatuscomprising: an optical emitter module for sending optical pulses towardssaid object; an optical receiver module for receiving optical signalsreflected by said object and for converting said optical signals intodigital signal waveforms; a control and processing unit for processingsaid digital signal waveforms, said control and processing unit beingadapted to average previously acquired signals by using an averaginglevel that is a function of the distance, so that data points forfarther distances are more averaged than data points corresponding tocloser distances.
 30. An apparatus for optically sensing a remote objectin relative motion along a line of sight of said apparatus, saidapparatus comprising: an optical emitter for sending a predeterminednumber Ns of optical pulses towards said object; an optical receiver forreceiving a number Ns of optical signals reflected by said object andfor converting said number N_(s) of optical signals into a number N_(s)of digital signal waveforms S_(k), k=1, 2, 3, . . . , N_(s), each of thedigital signal waveforms being formed of data sampled at a predeterminednumber N_(p) of range values R_(i), i=1, 2, 3, . . . , N_(p), and acontrol and processing unit for numerically processing said digitalsignal waveforms, said control and processing unit being further adaptedto: (a) select a set of range shift parameter values RSP_(j), j=1, 2, 3,. . . , N_(R), (b) perform a range shift of each said waveform S_(k) bythe value (k−1)×RSP_(j), (c) generate a waveform SA_(j) by computing theaverage of the N_(S) said waveforms S_(k) range shifted according tostep (b), (d) find the peak signal amplitude comprised in the averagedsignal waveform SA_(j), (e) repeat steps (b) to (d) for the N_(R) valuesof said range shift parameter RSP_(j) as selected in step (a), (f) findthe values of said range shift parameter that give averaged signalwaveforms having peak signal amplitudes exceeding a predeterminedthreshold, (g) combine the averaged signal waveforms determined in step(f) and update a previously measured signal waveform having the maximumpeak signal amplitude with said waveform combination.
 31. An apparatusfor optically sensing a remote object moving in a zone covered by saidapparatus and for increasing the signal to noise ratio of the signalwaveforms generated by said apparatus, said apparatus comprising: meansfor angularly scanning a line of sight of said apparatus to cover apredetermined zone, an optical emitter module for sending at least oneoptical pulse at each predetermined line of sight tilted by an angleθ_(j) relative to a reference direction, an optical receiver module forreceiving for each predetermined line of sight θ_(j) at least oneoptical signal, means for converting said optical signals into digitalsignal waveforms S, each of the said digital signal waveforms beingformed of data sampled at a predetermined number N_(p) of range valuesR_(i), i=1, 2, 3, . . . , N_(p), and a control and processing unit forprocessing said received optical pulses, wherein said control andprocessing unit is further adapted to: (a) store into memory said signalwaveforms S(R_(i), θ_(j), t_(k)) acquired for each line of sight θ_(j)and for each acquisition time t_(k), (b) retrieve from said memory thesignal waveforms S acquired for the lines of sight θ_(j) enclosed in anangular subregion delimited by predetermined boundary angles θ_(REF) andθ_(LIM), so that θ_(LIM)≦θ_(j)≦θ_(REF), (c) select intervals over whichthe values of the object velocity V, the object direction of travelθ_(V), the distance of intersection D_(REF) of said object with thereference line of sight θ_(REF) and the time t_(REF) of intersectionwith said reference line of sight θ_(REF) will be varied, (d) computefor a first combination of parameters V, θ_(V), D_(REF), t_(REF) thetime t_(j) at which said object could have intersected a first line ofsight θ_(j) enclosed in said angular subregion, and retrieving thesignal waveform S(R_(i), θ_(j), t_(k)) acquired at the time t_(k) whichis the closest to said computed time t_(j), (e) compute for said firstcombination of parameters V, θ_(V), D_(REF), t_(REF) the distance D_(j)from said apparatus at which the object could have intersected saidfirst line of sight θ_(j), (f) perform a range shift by the quantityD_(REF)−D_(j) of said signal waveform S(R_(i), θ_(j), t_(k)) retrievedin step (d), (g) repeat step (d) to (f) for each said line of sightθ_(j) enclosed in said angular subregion, (h) generate a waveform SA bycomputing the average of the set of signal waveforms that have beenrange-shifted according to step (g), (i) repeat steps (d) to (h) foreach different combination of said parameters V, θ_(V), D_(REF),t_(REF), j) find the specific combination of said parameters V, θ_(V),D_(REF), t_(REF), that gives an averaged signal waveform SA having themaximum signal amplitude, (k) update a previous signal waveform havingthe maximum signal amplitude with the one determined in step (j), and(l) update motion parameters of said object with the said combination ofparameters V, θ_(V), D_(REF), t_(REF) determined in step (j).